vivid means clear, detailed, or powerful. It carries an Arena rating of 1527, earned across 9 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, vivid ranks #556 of 17,113 for Most Elegant Words, #967 of 17,123 for Most Malleable Words, #2,502 of 17,116 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #6,119 of 17,120 for Most Beautiful Words.
vivid is pronounced /ˈvɪvɪd/.
Why “vivid” is a great word
Producing strikingly clear, intense, and lifelike mental images or impressions. From Latin vividus (“lively, animated”), rooted in vivere (“to live”), it first appeared in English between 1630 and 1640. Unlike “graphic,” which sharpens detail to the point of stark explicitness, or “lively,” which suggests energetic motion, vivid pulses with the resonant clarity and warmth of lived sensation—the exact crimson of a poppy against a grey wall, the piercing scent of rain on hot asphalt, the sharp taste of a lemon that makes the jaw ache. It is the mind’s small miracle: to rekindle the dead past, not as a sketch, but as an ember still holding heat.
adj
- Clear, detailed, or powerful.
- Bright, intense, or colourful.
- Full of life; strikingly alive.e.g.“The vivid, untrammeled life appealed to him, and for a time he had found delight in it; but he was wise and knew that once peace was established there would be no room in Cuba for the Sin Verguenza.”
noun
- A felt-tipped permanent marker; a marker pen.
Words closest in meaning
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